NCT03432832

Emotion Awareness and Skills Enhancement Program

Emotion Awareness and Skills Enhancement (EASE) Program: A Clinical Trial

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 113 (actual)
• Sponsor: University of Pittsburgh · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 12 Years – 21 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

This project will address impaired emotion regulation in adolescents with ASD (autism spectrum disorder). There are no evidence-based interventions to improve emotion regulation (ER) in this population, yet poor emotion regulation often leads to maladaptive behavior and substantially impedes capacity to learn and function across all life settings, and reduce their quality of life and that of their families. The primary objective of this study is to formally evaluate efficacy of EASE via a sufficiently powered, two-site randomized-controlled trial (RCT).

Detailed description

The current study is to test a new intervention called Emotional Awareness and Skills Enhancement (EASE). This program was designed to address ASD-specific obstacles to effective emotion regulation, such as reduced awareness concerning others' intentions, a limited repertoire of behavioral responses, and inadequate language for understanding emotional experiences. This new program is based on an acceptance-based approach in which awareness of emotion is developed, emotions (whether negative or positive) are accepted, and behavior is regulated in the face of intense emotion. The goal is not to learn to avoid negative emotions, but rather to develop a collection of abilities which allow the individual to manage stress and act in ways that are more adaptive. The investigators expect to find that participants' emotion dysregulation will decrease and their adaptive function will increase following completion of the EASE program.

Conditions

• Autism Spectrum Disorder

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	EASE	Weekly behavioral sessions with therapist to work on emotional control through measures such as mindfulness.
BEHAVIORAL	Supportive Therapy	Weekly behavioral sessions with a therapist to work on emotional control

Timeline

• Start date: 2018-01-30
• Primary completion: 2024-07-30
• Completion: 2024-07-30
• First posted: 2018-02-14
• Last updated: 2025-04-17

Locations

2 sites across 1 country: United States